On Could 7, India woke as much as ‘Operation Sindoor’, a collection of precision strikes by the armed forces at 9 websites in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. This was in retaliation to the terrorist assaults in Pahalgam on April 22, during which 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen, largely vacationers, have been killed.
This was the identical week {that a} report on the Indian Wealth Divide revealed that many of the nation earns so little that an annual earnings of simply ₹2.9 lakh places you within the prime 10%. It got here simply two months after a enterprise capital firm revealed a report that out of the 140 crore Indians, solely the highest 10% have sufficient discretionary cash to spend on non-essential objects.
That very same night, throughout the mock drills introduced by the Ministry of Dwelling Affairs to test if the nation was ready in opposition to “new and complicated threats”, as an alternative of staying in throughout the blackout and studying to cover their places, many Indians thronged the streets and burst firecrackers — identical to they might to rejoice an IPL cricket match victory. In the meantime, road distributors, a part of the underside half of the Indian inhabitants, whose nationwide earnings has fallen from 22% to fifteen% between 1990 and 2025, have been made to show their patriotism by shutting store for the mock drills and giving up their every day wage.
A piece-from-home warfare
That evening and the next two days, most Indians fought a work-from-home warfare. Content material creators and information channels threw a barrage of disinformation, reporting how India had captured Lahore, Karachi and even Islamabad. And the way, many Indian cities have been underneath assault too.
There have been visuals of panic shopping for, throngs at ATMs to withdraw money, and jammed prepare stations and bus stations as migrant employees rushed to return to their hometowns. Concurrently, cross-border shelling and drone assaults have been killing civilians, officers, troopers, and inflicting the destruction of homes, property and livestock in Poonch, Ferozepur, Uri, Jammu, Srinagar, Rajouri, Samba and different border districts. The villagers there have been displaced and on the lookout for hideouts. However folks sitting afar, experiencing the digital warfare — educated to dehumanise others by rationalising abuse of these on the socio-economic margins due to their class, caste or faith — dismissed it as ‘collateral injury’ within the warfare in opposition to terror.
Frequent sense was thrown for a toss. Demanding preventive as an alternative of combative method in battle turned unpopular. A number of the WhatsApp customers peddling pretend information have been now baying for blood and the escalation of army motion through the use of warfare gaming language: morale, technique, ways, terrain, artillery, victory situations, order of battle, zeroed in. Some even advocated the usage of nuclear weapons to destroy Pakistan in a couple of minutes.
There was a transparent shift in public opinion and expectations on what’s the proper response to battle — which had earlier acknowledged that escalation of armed actions causes losses to all, economically, socially and morally.
As Srinath Raghavan, an instructional and former Indian military official, who has deeply researched India’s strategic historical past, says, “Warfare is a continuation of politics.” He notes that the chest-thumping and bloodlusting response to conflicts has been a basic development within the final decade. Working example: Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating on a number of events that India’s official coverage is to hit her enemies inside their territories — one thing he not too long ago repeated, ‘Ghar mein ghus-ghus kar marenge.’
Srinath Raghavan
| Photograph Credit score:
R.V. Moorthy
In response to Raghavan, India noticed the identical warfare mongering response within the surgical strikes of 2016 and throughout the 2019 Balakot air strikes after the Pulwama assault. “There’s a concerted try to whip up this response and now we have now grow to be used to responding on this means. In 2008, when the 26/11 assaults occurred in Mumbai, some folks requested to make use of different strategies than warfare — which was additionally what the then authorities needed. The current authorities doesn’t have the identical method.”
Blow to the economic system
Research reveal that the ten most conflict-affected nations on this planet reminiscent of Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and Venezuela misplaced, on common, 41% of their financial output because of violence. It’s estimated that the 1999 Kargil warfare price India roughly ₹15 crore per day. Escalation of violence might trigger a meals disaster or famine, like in Gaza, and even impression the IT infrastructure that facilitates WiFi-enabled digital wars.
On this mild, the common sense response of the folks would have been to demand an finish to the warfare, however anybody who tried to publicly say ‘no’ to warfare was deemed not only a traitor and terror supporter, however was additionally threatened with dire penalties. Ritu Sinha, a software program techie in Hyderabad, says, “I refuse to marry an individual who asks for de-escalation. It reveals the weak point of that man’s character.” When requested about diplomacy and different measures to deal with terrorism and cross-border battle, she responds that “saying no to warfare is discouraging and disrespecting the Indian military, and solely a terror apologist would say that”.
Raghavan, nevertheless, stresses that Indians of this era are fortunate that they haven’t seen a large-scale warfare; they’ve solely seen localised army issues in particular areas — the place the folks of that area have handled the implications and never the whole nation. “Folks shouldn’t assume that wars are re-enactments of film scripts. Wars should not a trivial matter, and we have now to be aware of the implications.”
When politicians unite
On this warfare frenzy and mass hysteria, hardly any political celebration has known as for peace. Historian and author Ramachandra Guha factors out that jingoism is emotionally overpowering, and that folks overlook their very own plight. Now the general public calculation is that “warfare is dangerous for us however worse for Pakistan”. He additionally reminds: “After the 26/11 assault, the then Dwelling Minister Shivraj Patil needed to resign, however no such calls for are being made by the Opposition events this time.”
Ramachandra Guha
| Photograph Credit score:
R. Ravindran
In truth, events throughout the political spectrum, be it Proper, Centre or Left, have supported army actions. They’re determined to show their patriotism. Whereas individuals of anti-war peace rallies in Thrissur and Kolkata confronted a crackdown by the state governments in Kerala and West Bengal (underneath the Communist Get together of India and Trinamool Congress, respectively), the rally held in help of the armed forces by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Okay. Stalin, from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Opposition coalition, was allowed 1000’s of individuals.
The essential query on the colossal intelligence failure that led to the barbaric terror assault in Pahalgam is not current in public discourse. Peace activists consider that in occasions of propaganda, dumbing down of mind, and herd mentality, there’s a shrinking of house for dialogue. Arundhati Dhuru, convener of the Nationwide Alliance of Folks’s Actions, recounts that when she organised Indo-Pak peace missions within the late 90s after Pokhran, Indian faculties hosted Pakistani delegations. “They have been sceptical, (Pakistanis) have been nonetheless ‘they’, however we had an openness to pay attention, speak and sit collectively,” she remembers. “Now, it’s not doable. You might be lynched by your neighbour for saying no to warfare.”
However, on the similar time, “pitting your self in opposition to majority pro-war sentiment isn’t cowardice,” reminds Ravi Nair, govt director of the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre. “Pacifism is an act of braveness. It’s an knowledgeable alternative.”
The place is the unbiased thinker?
Within the absence of in-person dialogues and the presence of hate spewing content material on smartphones, artwork could possibly be a potent software to counter warfare propaganda. For many years, artists have inspired peace with their work globally. However it isn’t so in up to date India.
Inside two days of Operation Sindoor, there was a rush by leisure corporations to register the copyright of the identify, as if it have been a product launch and never a army operation. It’s not shocking at a time when motion pictures with slanted, sectarian, and inaccurate info concerning the previous and current — a few of them glorifying violence and warfare — have been rewarded commercially and by the federal government.
Orijit Sen, a graphic artist and designer, says, “In India, artists are not voices of dissent. This sense that the federal government will come after you is in all places. There’s an total ambiance of worry amongst everybody, together with artists.” He provides that there’s a manufactured mass hysteria amongst folks the place feelings are ripped up via propaganda-generating factories of the ruling dispensation. “Up to now decade, folks have grow to be extra zombie-like, they assume much less for themselves and depend on what they see on social media. It requires you to be an unbiased thinker and use your frequent sense to oppose killings, warfare, and violence,” says Sen.
Orijit Sen
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular association
A hypermasculine method
Globally, most leaders such because the U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and India’s personal PM Modi have customary themselves as hypermasculine leaders — of their physique language and responses. Guha factors out that the media has declared them as redeemers, and unbiased pondering folks have fallen prey to herd mentality. “The identical hypermasculine angle and language is mirrored throughout political ranks and recordsdata of BJP management, and within the responses of the road thug that lynches, tortures, and abuses folks on the margins and makes hate speeches. It’s no shock that there are such masculine responses to this case,” he says.
This was obvious within the identify ‘Operation Sindoor’, the place the Indian state and its leaders projected themselves because the protectors of ladies. On the afternoon of Could 7, when the federal government held its first press convention, it was addressed by International Secretary Vikram Misri and two girls, Colonel Sofia Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh. They knowledgeable that ‘Operation Sindoor was launched by the Indian Armed Forces to ship justice to the victims of the Pahalgam terror assault and their households.’ Sindoor, vermilion, is worn by many Indian girls of their hair parting to point their married standing; ceasing to put on it implies widowhood. PM Modi, in his handle to the nation on Could 12, repeatedly stated that the army motion is to hunt justice for the ladies whose sindoor was erased.
Vikram Misri
| Photograph Credit score:
ANI
Colonel Sofia Qureshi (proper) and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh
| Photograph Credit score:
AP
J. Devika, an instructional and feminist, says, “Operation Sindoor is a success as a result of it upholds the fraternal social contract the place girls belong to males in a patriarchal system. The place killing of a person is seizing his girls, on this case, the spouse. Killing the husband is killing her protector. That is the bottom of attacking in a patriarchal society the place it instantly turns into a query of honour.”
The press briefing held by two girls officers avenging the sindoor of the widows of Pahalgam was additionally hailed as a picture of the Indian ‘empowered girl’ and ‘united India’ as a result of Colonel Sofia Qureshi is Muslim.
The Indian authorities takes a leaf from Israel and the U.S. in creating such optics to focus a selective method to human rights violations. Israel has been accused of ‘pinkwashing’, making an attempt to present itself a liberal veneer in its warfare on Gaza. In November 2023, a photograph of an Israeli soldier with a rainbow flag in help of the LGBTQIA+ group appeared. Equally, the U.S. despatched Thomas-Greenfield and Robert A. Wooden, each Black Individuals, as its representatives within the UN — who’ve raised their palms to veto ceasefire resolutions for the Palestinian folks.
Not within the identify of ladies
The illustration of ladies and Muslims within the press briefing did little to whitewash the oppression of ladies and Muslims, nevertheless, or restore the social material in up to date India. An Affiliation for Safety of Civil Rights report means that after the Pahalgam terror assault, between April 22 and Could 8, 184 hate crimes in opposition to Muslims have been reported throughout the nation, out of which 106 have been instigated in retaliation to the Pahalgam terror assault. On Could 13, BJP chief Vijay Shah known as Colonel Sophia Qureshi “sister of the identical group as terrorists”.
Uttarakhand State Girls Congress President Jyoti Rautela and supporters burn an effigy throughout a protest in opposition to senior BJP chief Vijay Shah’s remarks on Col. Sofia Qureshi
| Photograph Credit score:
PTI
Urvashi Butalia, a feminist and writer, says that it’s price noting that previously, most peace-making initiatives have been made by girls. Girls in Black, an anti-war motion that began in Jerusalem in 1988 in opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and human rights violations, now maintain vigils in opposition to any manifestation of violence, militarism and warfare all around the world.
Equally, in 1994, throughout the Nagaland battle, the Naga Moms Affiliation shaped a Peace Staff as a part of a marketing campaign known as ‘Shed No Extra Blood’ that actively arbitrated a truce between the Indian authorities and the outfit, NSCN (IM). The group exists up to now.
On Could 10, when India and Pakistan’s ceasefire was declared, the collective aggression of digital warfare individuals was seen in rejecting peaceable options. The identical individuals who have been speaking about avenging girls’s honour via Operation Sindoor started trolling Misri’s daughter, for offering authorized counsel to Rohingya refugees after the International Secretary introduced on the federal government’s behalf that India and Pakistan agreed to cessation of army operations.
Amid this macho ambiance, feminists throughout India and Pakistan haven’t simply welcomed the ceasefire, but in addition known as ‘for a dismantling of energy buildings that maintain violence. The logic of warfare — rooted in nationalism, poisonous masculinity, and colonial-era borders — should be rejected.’
Butalia says, “Folks assume warfare needs to be the primary response and can repair the issue inside per week. However have a look at the Russia-Ukraine warfare and Israel-Gaza. It has been years. No wars have stopped as a result of nations ran out of ammunition. They stopped as a result of folks sat throughout the desk, talked and signed peace accords.”
At this time, studies of ceasefire violations proceed, as do chest thumping WhatsApp forwards, and TV and content material warriors who can’t look forward to season 2.
The Delhi-based unbiased journalist and creator covers the intersection of politics, gender, and social justice.
Revealed – Could 16, 2025 04:34 am IST